I want to be by your side (DaiKen)
by Ken-chanx3
Summary: Short DaiKen Fluff OneShot


He made it, that's what he realized, when he received his certificate and looked into the proud eyes of his parents and friends. They all smiled at him so happily and he would like to reflect that feeling in his own smile, but there was a gap, a human being who was missing and not participating in everything here. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he left the stage and allowed himself to be hugged by his parents. Mechanically, as rehearsed, he put his arms around them for a moment, then freed himself again and had to repeat the procedure a total of ten times. He would never have thought that he would be here today; all this he owed the one who wasn't here. The person never losing faith in him, whose heartbeat he still felt as a weak echo inside himself, but he was not here, his best friend, Motomiya Daisuke.  
As Ken sat down next to his friends and family to await the rest of the Tokyo Police Academy award ceremony, his thoughts wandered back to the past, to a time when everything was still fine.

The adventures that they had experienced together in the Digital World remained unforgotten and had brought them all together, but the closest always had been the Chosen who experienced Jogress. Ken and Daisuke had always been the most connected among them, but the other six, too, had felt that special feeling of trust and unity associated with the evolution. But that had been many years ago, the peace in the Digital World was restored, they had all grown up, lived their lives, their dreams ... Ken's had come true today, when he had received the final certificate and knew that he would start working as a detective in two weeks. For so long he had been working hard, losing sleep at night for weeks just to pass the challenging psychology studies and to apply to the Tokyo Police Academy. In the end it had paid off, because he had finished as one of the best and thus made everyone around him really proud. But that did not help him over the fact that there was a hole inside of him only Daisuke could fill.

After finishing elementary school, Ken's parents decided to move to Odaiba to spare their son the long rides between Tamachi and Odaiba and allow him to attend the same middle school his friends were. Daisuke and he enrolled in the soccer team of their school and had already won their place in the team in the first few weeks. On the soccer field, it was like fighting a vicious Digimon: they were one unit, they seemed perfectly synchronized, and stopping their passes was only possible if their opponents somehow managed to break that unit. Alone, they were two pretty good but still average players, but together they defeated any team, no matter how strong they were. Their middle school days had been really light-hearted, they'd spent all their free time together or with the rest of the Chosen until they transferred into high school and had to concrete their future plans. Daisuke became calmer, more thoughtful, something Ken had to get used to as his best friend had always been the opposite. It wasn't that Ken was not happy that his light-hearted friend Motomiya had serious thoughts about his future, but Ichijoji did not understand why his friend didn't give him an insight in his ideas and dreams.

Ken had known for a long time that he wanted to become a detective, his sense of justice was almost commanding him to stand up for others and perhaps another part of that wish was him still feeling guilty about the fact that he allowed darkness to seduce and use him. He wanted to spend his life to protect others from those who didn't want to do any good and so he had something in mind making it worth to be diligent at school. Daisuke, too, had suddenly developed an enthusiasm for learning, and every one of their friends, whom Ken told they'd study together for the final exams, called the dark-haired boy to be crazy, but it was the truth. Motomiya had actually set his mind on making his Ramen cart a reality. He either spent his whole free time learning with Ken or using him to experiment with his latest Ramen creations, also spending many weekends working in a restaurant trying to get start-up capital for his business and also get an insight into gastronomy. Ken had helped him with his plan, because it was the first time, they knew Daisuke was so into something. And although he knew it was not fair of him, there was one thing Ken hadn't liked at all.

It had been in the second year of high school, to be exact, during the winter break, when Daisuke suddenly waved with a letter in front of Ken, full of joy, announcing, "I made it! Ken, I really made it! "Irritated and confused, Ken looked up from his book, he was just trying to read an English text when the doorbell had rung and his mother had let Daisuke in. They were almost neighbors, they did not live on the same floor, but at least in the same building and therefore their parents were used to the fact that the two were regular guests at the other's house. "What are you talking about?" He asked a little skeptical, but still with a slight smile, so much for Daisuke dropping his impetuosity. "The culinary school I applied for, they accepted me!" Now Ken was really perplexed, shoving a note into the book and closing it. "You applied for a culinary school? You'd never told me anything about that." The dark-haired man said, but he really smiled. "I am very happy for you, congratulations. What kind of school is it?" Tokyo had three well-known culinary schools and as happy as Motomiya had been, there was no doubt of him going to one of these three schools, at least Ken thought. Daisuke rubbed his neck a bit sheepishly. "Well, the entrance exam was pretty tough and I was sure that I did not make it anyway, so I decided not to tell you. But I owe you passing the exam in the end! If you hadn't helped me in English that never would have happened!"  
Ken suddenly started to feel uneasy listening to Daisuke's words and he couldn't meet his friend's eyes anymore. "May I ... see the letter?" With a grin, the Goggle Boy handed him the note in his hand, and as soon as Ken saw the sender, he was pale in an instant. "Culinary School of New York City," was written there and Ken read the rest of the letter only fleetingly. His heart was thumping and he suddenly felt like losing ground. Daisuke, his best friend, his soulmate, would go to America ... "Wow, that's ... awesome." Ken finally blurted out, but thankfully, Daisuke seemed to be relating his speechlessness to the news. "It's great, isn't it?!", he exclaimed euphorically and couldn't hold himself back anymore. "I did the school entrance exam when we visited Wallace in America in summer. It was the day you all went to the beach and I told you I wouldn't feel so well. I let Wallace in on my plans, so he played along that day."  
Ken just nodded silently, he did not know what to say anymore, his mind was running in circles, his thoughts were drifting around. At some point while learning together they had fun in starting to make plans for the future. They had decided in being roommates because Ken would stay in Tokyo. He would definitely be accepted to any University he wanted, there was no doubt and Daisuke had repeatedly talked about schools in Tokyo that he would like to go to. But America ... Daisuke was so caught up in his euphoria that for once he did not notice the mood swing of his best friend. Instead, he joked around, "Wow, I wouldn't have believed to ever see you that speechless in my life. I told you, I can do this, ha! Even though the others never believed in me, I never gave up my dream and I'm glad you helped me, Ken!"

Ken knew it had been selfish and self-seeking not to rejoice with Daisuke in that situation, but in the end, he had continued to support his best friend until they graduated high school and it was time to finally say goodbye. At first, they wrote daily emails and called each other every weekend, but the more Daisuke and Ken got used to their new lives, the less frequent and less detailed the emails became, and the shorter the phone calls were until they finally stopped. At the beginning they had planned their visits for each other, but the reality had caught up with them more than just fast. Life in New York was not that cheap and Daisuke had to do various part-time jobs to afford living his dream, while Ken was so absorbed in his studies that even the other Chosen barely got to see him. In the end Daisuke came back to Japan to visit his family for Christmas in his first year abroad and Ken once visited during the semester break, but since then the two friends hadn't seen each other in person. They occasionally wrote to each other when time allowed, but if Ken was honest, maybe it was better that they had grown apart as the young man had a secret and he did not want Daisuke to know about it. He was sure that it would only make things more complicated, maybe even destroy the rest of what was left of their friendship.

They had always been close and Ken had not been able to imagine a life without Daisuke, but eventually he realized what he felt was not just friendship, but love, he basically owed that realization to Miyako. The violet-haired girl having a crush on Ken since elementary school always had been an open secret the young man also had known about. However, he had not expected that one day she would really stand in front of him to make a love confession. Ken really liked Miyako, she was a loyal friend, sometimes a bit exhausting, but he had always enjoyed the intellectual conversation with her. But despite that, he wasn't having the same feelings for her and she had quickly realized what was going on before Ken himself even had realized it. He had made her promise to keep this a secret to herself and she had kept it to this day.

The day passed by and the ceremony was finally over so the real party was about to start. His parents had rented a room for the Chosen, so Ken and his friends could celebrate his police graduation. Even his mother had noticed that her son had changed since Daisuke had gone to America five years ago, he started to keep his thoughts to himself again and it was hard to tell about his true feelings, as he still managed to hide them behind a mask that only Daisuke had been able to read by now. Ken tried his best to be happy on this evening and to have fun with his friends, but in the end, he retired and went outside to the terrace. It was late March, so it was still relatively fresh, but that didn't bother Ken as the cold wind helped him calm down and stop his churning heart and racing mind. He didn't know how long he had been standing there and looking up to the sky, when suddenly someone had approached behind him and put his hands over his eyes. Ken had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the footsteps and was clueless whom of his friends was making fun with him.

He was just about to ask if his friends thought it was funny and if they were still in kindergarten when he noticed a smell he hadn't scented for too long. It was a mixture of spices and a very specific shower gel, which had always been used by only one person. He felt the sudden lump in his throat and he swallowed once, then softly asked, "Dai..suke?" He could not say more, because his voice broke and he had to pull himself together to not drown in his own feelings now. The hands were taken away from his eyes and as Ken turned, he looked into the grinning smile of his best friend, the man he had missed so much. "What ...", but he couldn't say anything more as Daisuke already started babbling with a grin. "What I am doing here? How I got here? Surely, you can't tell me you really believed I'd miss the day my best friend gets his professional qualification, ha! "And without another word, he came closer just to pull Ken into a tight hug. "I'm sorry I missed the ceremony, there was a heavy thunderstorm raging in New York and that stupid plane did not depart on time. But your parents let me know they rented this place for your party." Ken was just too dumbfounded to say anything, but finally he managed to show a mixture of smiling and weeping as tears started flowing down his cheeks. "You're such an idiot ... at least you could have said you were coming," Ken finally said, causing Daisuke to laugh softly. "Telling you and missing that expression on your face? Forget about that Ichijoji, never in my life."

The spell finally was broken now between them and Ken joined into the laughter before he freed himself out of embrace to wipe away the tears from his eyes and cheeks. "You're really an idiot, but I'm glad the idiot got on the plane and came here. I ... I missed you terribly, "he admitted, and Daisuke's grin faded slightly, replaced by a sincere smile. "I know, I missed you, too. I'm also sorry for losing touch with you, but I would've never been able to pull through school if we kept exchanging emails every day and phoning every weekend. And I knew very well that you would blame yourself for my failure then. Yes Ken, don't give me that look, I know exactly how your mind is working, I can read you like an open book!" Confident, Daisuke looked at him and a small smile sneaked onto Ken's lips. "You're probably right ... when do you have to go back?" Ken asked and Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "As soon as I'm here you want to get rid of me already? Forget about that, for the next two weeks you have to deal with me and you can start to get used to having me around you again!" Reading between the lines you didn't need to be a genius for and so Ken blurted out, "You're coming back to Japan permanently?! When?! Why?!"

They sat on a bench on the terrace and Daisuke told Ken of his experiences in America, his education, before he finally came to answer Ken's question. "My practical year ends in July and my Ramen cart is already under construction. Sure, I could have gone on with it in America, but I don't care if I know there's someone waiting for me in Japan," he said, tapping his forefinger against Ken's chest, who blushed slightly at the words he received. "Do you realize how that's sounding?" The dark-haired man asked with embarrassment clearly shown all over his face before he tried to turn away.  
But Daisuke foiled him by placing his hands on Ken's cheeks and turning his head back in his direction. "Silly you ... I know sometimes I'm an idiot, but even I'm not that dopey to miss the looks you shoot me ... always shot me. If I had conceived it back then, I would never have gone to America. I'm sorry, Ken." Ken just sat there speechless, he did not know what else to say. Daisuke ... he had known? His mouth opened, only to close immediately, because he just did not know what to say. He lowered his eyes before mumbling in embarrassment, "Please don't hate me ..." Daisuke just sat there in pure shock. "Hate you? Me? How do you get to think nonsense like that! After all that have we've been through, you really don't put me past that?! "Daisuke could not hide the hurt tone in his voice, did Ken really consider him to be someone who condemned him? Miyako once said for fun that Daisuke didn't even know how to spell the word "prejudice" and she hadn't been that wrong in the end. But only a moment passed by before Daisuke had recovered already and grinned at Ken. "There's definitely too much nonsense coming out of your mouth."

And with that stated Daisuke neared his face to Ken's before their lips touched and melted together. At first, Ken was completely stunned and taken by surprise, before his hands lay on the neck of his Jogress partner and pulled him closer to him. The kiss had a hint of the spices Daisuke always used to for his Ramen, and Ken's heart was thumping in his throat, the feeling he had while their lips touched gentle, almost shy was hard to describe. The distant echo of a second heartbeat could now be heard clearly before their hearts began to merge with one another. For a moment their eyes closed, forgetting about everything around them, just enjoying the feeling of being so close to each other after almost four years of absence. But it felt like they'd never been apart. A few more seconds passed before Daisuke decided to break the kiss, but his face stayed close to Ken's and his hand didn't move away from his cheek either, Daisuke was even gently stroking over it with his thumb. It took a moment for Ken to get back to reality before he squeezed out in a frail voice and almost in tears. "I ... I love you, Daisuke." Daisuke smiled softly before saying, "Silly you. Me too, always. Since that day in the desert, when our hearts became one, Ken. "And with that, he pulled Ken closer again to unite their lips once more. Ken did not really know what was happening to him, but one thing was for sure: no matter what was going to happen in the future, he just couldn't be happier as he was now, because he had found the one making him feel whole.


End file.
